Donovan Maasz

Participatory Design (PD) aims for inclusivity, but the level of inclusion varies widely. Inclusion often means integrating stakeholder perspectives into design processes, often neglecting bi-directionality, where communities also have agendas. True collaboration rests on mutual understanding, acknowledging the dynamic nature of community collaboration and the holistic impact of shaping relationships. This workshop will explore collaboration challenges and practices with marginalized communities. It will draw on the organisers’ extensive experiences with diverse groups, including nomadic and resettled indigenous communities in Namibia, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and Syrian war refugees in Jordan. The workshop encourages sharing and reflecting on experiences with marginalized communities, welcoming contributions from participants to enrich discussions and enhance collective understanding of collaborative practices.

Indigenous people across the globe have all too often been marginalised and not been considered in decisions that directly concern their life. We maintain the significance of incorporating indigenous perspectives in society to create a global dialogue through direct participation. In this light we propose a situated action in which our co-author from the Ju/’hoansi tribe, one of the San ethnicity in Southern Africa, digitally records semi-structured conversations with members of other indigenous communities at the conference and public spaces in Sibu. Then participants are engaged into a participatory exploration of processing the audio files into sound installations and soundscapes which “amplify indigenous voices“. We anticipate that the products can be reused for further initiatives in the different countries, raising awareness and calling for action on matters of concern for indigenous people.

Escape rooms have gained popularity across the globe, be it for entertainment, team building, or learning purposes. Solving puzzles has intrigued humanity since ancient times and playing games together facilitated intercultural encounters, encouraging mutual learning. This situated action builds on the idea of a mobile escape room within a suitcase, which when traveling shares previous encounters and collects new puzzles, thereby ever evolving. A suitcase will arrive in Sibu, Malaysia, with augmented reality stickers that entail puzzles created in Namibia. Visitors need to solve the puzzles to open the suitcase, which contains treats from Namibia, as well as materials to create new puzzles. Visitors participate in creating their own cultural puzzles, upload them to the augmented reality application, and thereby contribute to a new multicultural escape suitcase. The puzzles can also be played back at home, and the suitcase will continue evolving as it travels.

This workshop offers an immersive exploration of ethical co-design practices with indigenous communities, addressing communication barriers and co-constructing a Rural Community Engagement Framework. Seasoned facilitators guide participants through mixed-method methodologies, fostering discussions on co-facilitation and co-publishing. The workshop aims to empower participants to deconstruct Afrocentric research canons and integrate culturally sensitive strategies into their engagements, promoting meaningful co-design collaborations for transformative impact.